Managing Transition from Informational to Transactional Queries

Google Adwords have enabled Businesses to attract clients with the intent of purchasing a product/service. But a large chunk of visits are still guided through Search Engines. This is because before the client enters the transactional keywords, he will use several informational queries before making the purchase.

Informational Queries -> Transactional Queries -> Purchase

Let us take a scenario where you are planning to buy a Diesel Car in Cochin.

The initial queries will be related to comparing the top Diesel Cars in Cochin. The informational queries will be:

“Top Diesel Cars in Cochin”

“Top Diesel Cars 2013”

“Affordable Diesel Cars”

“Cheapest Diesel Cars”

Depending on the persona of the client, the informational queries would be to find the best diesel car based on rating, value or both.

Once the client has learned about the top diesel cars through informational search queries, the search queries will transform to semi-transactional queries.

Let us say that the Client has shortlisted the following two diesel cars after research:

1) Maruti Swift Diesel

2) Hyundai i20

The semi-transactional queries will be product attribute specific like:

"Hyundai i20 mileage"

"Swift diesel mileage"

Although Hyundai and Maruti Swift websites should optimize their pages to answer these queries, clients are more likely to visit comparison websites and learn about both the cars simultaneously. However, companies have the opportunity to bid for these semi-transactional queries through Google AdWords. Before creating the Ad, companies should have a clear idea about the competitors in the market segment.

If Hyundai knows that i20 is often selected after researching about Swift Diesel, bidding for “Swift Diesel” related keywords would be a better strategy. The Ads should encourage Swift Diesel Car researchers to click the Hyundai Ad and find out the product attributes for the car.

Let us say that Maruti Swift Diesel Mileage is 18km per litre against i20’s 19km per litre. The client does not have this information and has not even considered i20.

When the client enters the keyword: “swift diesel mileage,” an Ad like the following should be triggered:

I20 Best Mileage Car

Get More Mileage than Swift Diesel.

Learn about Hyundai i20

You will be surprised to know that the Ads that you see in the top navigational pages, even though not clicked can influence the buyer’s search intent. If the Ad gets clicked, the landing page should educate the client about i20’s mileage and why it is better than any other diesel cars in the segment.

Once the landing page has influenced the client, the next strategy should be to re-target the client with Hyundai i20 Ads, preferably Banner Ads. The old advertising rule of repetition still is important once you know the client’s intent. The disadvantage of old advertising media is that they are targeting viewers and listeners based on demographic and not purchasing intent. With Google AdWords, keywords can be mapped to the intent and allows Businesses to trigger Ads based on intent, motivation, and values.

Once the client has been influenced by the i20 Ads, the client will change the semi-transactional queries to transactional queries like:

"I20 diesel car specification"

"I20 diesel authorized dealers cochin"

"I20 diesel on-road cost cochin"

The above three queries have transactional intent. The client wants to learn about the best dealers in Cochin. This is the right time for dealers to come in the picture and bid for transactional keywords.

To successfully manage the client’s search process, companies and partners should think about the research phase holistically and divide the AdWords bidding process based on the various stages of influence.

If you want expert help in keyword research, contact us or you can call us at: India (Ph): +91 9497189032, UK (Ph): +44 (0)20-3371-9976 or US (Ph): +1 650-491-0004